


Flowers in the window

by liionne



Series: A thousand ways to meet [10]
Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Domestic, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, And also a flower store, Enterprise is a coffee shop, FLOWER CROWNS EVERYWHERE, Flower Crowns, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-02
Updated: 2013-09-02
Packaged: 2017-12-25 11:16:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,894
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/952431
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/liionne/pseuds/liionne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Leonard moved into the apartment above the coffee shop next to the apartment above the flowershop, he didn't expect his life to change so drastically.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Flowers in the window

**Author's Note:**

> Based on a variety of tumblr posts that my stupid, sieve-like brain has forgotten the links for. If you recognise an idea of yours in here, let me know!

When Leonard moved into the apartment above the coffee shop next to the apartment above the flowershop, he didn't expect his life to change so drastically.

Of course, it already had. His wife had just left him, taking not only their home and all the possessions within it that he hadn't bought and couldn't show the receipt for, including his daughter. And Leonard was pretty savvy when it came to things like that - he'd saved every receipt he'd ever gotten since the turn of the millenium, but unfortunately his little girl hadn't come with a little slip of paper with the price and warranty date on. Jocelyn had took her, the house, and most of his things. The only items he had now were the clothes in the suitcase Jocelyn had allowed him to take and the furniture the previous owners had left in the apartment.

The street he'd moved into was full of shops: a baker's, a butcher's, the flower store, the coffee shop, and the wedding shop, amongst others. It was the type of place where the owners lived above their business, and everyone knew everyone else. It had a sense of community. It was a lot different to the little isolated farm he'd spent the last ten years of his life on.

His landlord, a certain Mr. James "Call Me Jim" Kirk, had explained that the apartment he was renting was only empty because he owned both the flower shop and the coffee shop (and Leonard wonderd how a kid so young had managed to build two businesses, but he didn't question it) and he only needed the one apartment. He was a nice enough kid, Leonard decided. And he was totally hot, but he tried not to think about that too much.

He spent his first day unpacking boxes. He moved in at seven o'clock in the morning, just when Jim was setting out the tables outside of the cafe. "Morning McCoy," He sang, carrying two chairs out of the cafe and setting them out by the table.

"Mornin'." Leonard returned gruffly. He only had his suitcase full of clothes, a box of things from home, and the rest of the boxes in the back of his car were filled with new things: pots and pans and plates for the kitchen, bedding and sheets for the bedroom, and shower things for the bathroom. It felt like he was starting his life over again; he couldn't say it was a bad feeling.

He didn't say anything else. Instead, he darted up to his room before any awkward conversation could ensue. It only took him an hour to unload all of his boxes, and put his stuff in the right place, which he thought was pretty damn crappy. He piled the empty boxes up by the door; he'd take them down for recycling at some point in the near future. Maybe he'd keep them just in case. Sighing, he turned to his little kitchenette, reaching out to grab the coffee pot and make himself a cup of something strong.

And that was when he remembered that he had yet to buy a coffee pot.

He growled a little to himself as he dug around in his pocket, pulling out a handful of change. He lived above the damn shop; surely he'd be able to leave an IOU.

Heeading down the stairs, he ran a hand through his already mussed up hair. He'd yet to meet any of the shop staff from eihter of Jim's stores. He hoped they'd be alright with him.

When he entered the coffee shop, which was already filling up with commuters, he found Jim behind the counter, leaning on his forearms as he waited for another customer. A guy with jet black hair and kind-looking eyes stood behind him, putting new cookies into the display at the front of the shop. They smelled good, the fresh smell of baking overpowering the smell of flowers from the shop next door. He was chatting away to a girl with bright red hair and even brighter green eyes wearing what Leonard assumed to be a crown made of bright white roses, who bopped slightly to the soft music flowing through the room. When Jim caught sight of him, he stood up straight. "Bones!"

"Bones?" Leonard raised an eyebrow.

"Saw that skeleton in one of your boxes." Jim grinned. He didn't even look a little sheepish, even though it was obvious that he'd looked into Leonard's trunk in order to have sen that skeleton. "Please don't say you put it in the closet."

"Who's got skeletons in the closet?" The redhead asked, ducking into their conversation.

"Not me." The other guy shrugged, and Jim grinned.

"Bones, I'd like you to meet Gaila and Sulu. Gaila and Sulu, this is Bones." Jim said, gesturing from Leonard to the other two, both wearing the smart black clothes that served as a uniform for Enterprise Cafe.

Leonard glared at Jim, before looking back to the other two. "McCoy, Leonard McCoy."

"Mm, I prefer Bones." Gaila mused.

Jim shook his head. "Too bad, Gaila. It's mine."

"Aw Jim." She whined, but her complaining was stopped before it could begin by a dinging from the kitchen in the back room. "I'll go get that." She said, flicking her hair over her shoulder as she left.

"So what'll it be, Bones?" Jim asked, smiling at him.

"Black coffee." He said simply, folding his arms across his chest.

"What a bore." Sulu commented, raising his eyebrows.

Jim grinned. "Go sit down, Bones, I'll bring it over."

With a nod, Leonard took a seat. He didn't notice Jim give Sulu a nudge with his elbows and a raise of his eyebrow, or he would've been suspicious. Instead he looked around the cafe, looking at the large, seemingly hand-painted map of the world on the wall, made up enirely of sepia tones. On every tabletop there was a vase of flowers, each one apparently different. In his sat a single, bright red tulip, not too flashy and not too plain. On the one beside him sat a vase with a white rose, a few tables away sat a small posey of yellow flowers that he didn't recognise.

"Here we go," Jim smiled.

The coffee was black, as promised, but Jim's smile suggested that there was something up with it. It was a little too myserious, too edgy.

Hesistantly, Leonard took a sip.

"What the hell is that in my coffee?" He scowled at Jim.

"Hibiscus syrup." Jim grinned. "Don't tell me you don't like it. Everyone likes it. We go through three bottles of that a week."

"I didn't ask for your fruity little concotions, kid." He grumbled.

"It's a flower, not a fruit, Bones." He replied, matter-of-factly.

"Have you met the rest of the team?" Jim asked, after Leonard took a few begrudging sips of the coffee that was kind of nice, actually.

"Nope." he replied, shaking his head.

"Great." Jim grinned. "I love introductions."

Leonard raised an eyebrow at the kid, but he seemed unperturbed by it. He leaned back in his chair, drumming his fingers against the polished wood of the table top before he sat up again with a huff. "Are you always this slow?"

"Are you always this impatient?"

"Yes. I'll be right back." Jim stood, walking briskly over to the counter and pausing for a moment before pulling out a blue take-away cup. He walked back over to Leonard's table, stole his mug from him, and poured it into the cup, placing the lid firmly back in place. "There." he grinned. "Let's go."

Leonard grumbled the whole way through to the office, where there was an attractive blonde lady in a red dress tapping away at a keyboard. "Leonard, this is Janice." Jim said, gesturing to her. Janice looked up and smiled. "Janice, this is Leonard. He's living in the apartment upstairs."

Janice stood, crossing the room swiftly and shaking Leonard's hand.

"You the book keeper?" Leonard asked.

"Book keerper, PR guru and personal assistant." Janice said, glancing over to Jim with a smirk.

"She keeps my head on straight." Jim said in a stage-whisper, leaning closer to Leonard with a smirk of his own. "I'll let you get back to work."

Janice nodded, crossing the room back to her desk before she gave a soft exclaim of " _oh_!" and calling, "Jim? There's a couple wants a bridal boquet and seven bridesmaid boquets. Shall I book them in for a consultation?"

"Go for it." Jim nodded, leading Leonard out of the office and back into the cafe.

"You've met Sulu and Gaila. Sulu's our best grower, and Gaila's our best baker. Sulu prefers the florists but he has to make a living." Jim shrugged, taking Leonard through the door that joined the two shops together.

The shop smelled sweeter than anything Leonard had ever encountered, yet it didn't seem as over poewring as he thought it would. The air was crisp and the room was refreshingly cold. It seemed so green, yet there were splashes of colour everywhere - bright red roses and big yellow sunflowers sitting alongside fresh white lilies and an array of green leaves. Leonard decided that he liked it.

Jim led him to the counter, where a woman with deep brown eyes and even darker brown hair was sat reading a novel. She wore a chain of carnations around her head, just like the crown Gaila had been wearing. "Leonard, this is my best associate, Uhura." Jim smiled. "Uhura, this is Leonard. He lives upstairs."

"Just Uhura?" Leonard asked unsurely as he shook her hand.

"It's my last name." She nodded.

"You not got a-"

"Let's not go there." Jim said, ushering him past her and into the back room.

There were a lot more flowers in the back room than in the front room, but all of these were still buds or sprouts, flowers that had yet to really come into the world. A man with the worst haircut Leonard had ever seen watered them out of a measuring jug, stopping as soon as he hit a certain mark. Then he would tilt his hand up and the water would stop, and he'd move onto the next plant. In the corner was a kid curled up in a beaten up arm chair, curly hair holding up a crown of peonies. Were flower crowns a habit in this place?

If anyone tried to put one on Leonard he'd cut them.

In the other corner of the room was a guy in oil-splattered overalls, fiddling around with a red light bulb and a couple of screws. He didn't have a flower crown, but he did have a magnolia tucked behind his ear.

"Leonard," Jim said, raising his voice a little. All three men - well, two men and the kid - looked up. "This is Spock, Scotty and Chekov. Spock works with Sulu as a grower, Scotty's our janiter, and Chekov does advertising."

There was a frustrated look from everyone in the room, and Spock said, "I am a biologist, Jim. Much more than a grower."

"I'm an engineer!" Scotty cried.

"I'm a photographer." Chekov said weakly. "But I am in charge of advertising."

"Yeah yeah whatever." Jim said. "This is Leonard. He's got your old place." Jim nodded to Spock.

"I see." Spock mused. "It is a good apartment, but do be careful of the pigeons that have taken up residence in the gutter."

"Damn." Leonard muttered

"Indeed." Spock murmured, the hint of a smirk on his features. Stoic bastard.

"Uh, Jim, I gotta work a shift in two hours, so I'm gonna head back upstairs." Leonard said, when a strange sort of silence fell over the group.

"Sure." Jim nodded, clapping him on the shoulder. "See you later, Bones."

Leonard rolled his eyes at the nickname as he left, heading outside to make his way up to his apartment.

~*~

Leonard didn't see Jim again for a while. The coffee store was always there and open until 6, as always, and the flower shop along with it, but he never went in. Firstly because Christine gave him a coffee pot as a house warming gift, and secondly because he could never find the time. His shifts were starting to get longer and longer, and he spent a lot days staying overnight in the hospital.

When he got up on his third day after meeting the Enterprise staff, he almost tripped over and went head-first down the stairs. "God damn mail man always leaving god damn-" he began to mutter, before he looked down to find out what he'd tripped over.

It was a tiny little bouquet, a posy really, of white carnations and what Leonard thought might be Begonia. His fingers fumbled to find the tag on the underside, reading: _"from Jim"_. He frowned at it before he put it inside, leaving it on the bench.

When he came home, some fourteen hours later, the flowers were beginning to wilt.

Leonard wondered why he felt sad.

The next day when he woke up, he almost stepped on them. Yet again it was a posy of white carnations and Begonia, with the same message on the back. This time Leonard took it inside and set it in a jar of water, finding that he didn't have a vase for them.

They were still looking pretty when he came home from work. He repressed a smile as he headed to bed.

On the third day, he outright smiled at the little posy on his doortstep.

Every morning for a week, Leonard found a posy of white carnations and Begonia outside his door. He was beginning to get a full bouquet, all of them from Jim, and so when he finally got a day off from work he decided he would troop down to the cafe to get a coffee and give him his thanks. But when he opened his door, expecting to see the familiar white flowers, he found his doorway empty.

"Janice?" Leonard asked, as he approached the counter of the coffee shop, having trudged downstairs with a frown. She was wearing the typical black clothes of an Enterprise waitress, but she wore a flower crown of daisies around her head. He frowned as he approached her - Jim always took the morning shift. "Thought you worked as the book keeper."

"Book keeper, PR guru, personal assistant to Jiminy and general dog's body." She smirked a little. "Jim's called in sick so I'm filling in for him."

"He's sick?" Leonard raised an eyebrow.

He wasn't sure why he felt so worried.

Janice waved a hand dismissively. "It'll just be a sniffle. He's allergic to almost everything under the sun, he probably just found yet another flower that brought him out in a rash."

"Should I go up and see him?" Leonard asked. "I'm a doctor, I can-"

"He'll be fine." She said, until she saw the look in his eyes. "Although, if you like, you can go up and see him. I don't think he'd mind... Use my key."

She pulled a chain off from around her neck, with a handful of keys hanging from it. "It's the gold one." She said, picking it out and holding it out to him.

"Thanks." He nodded, heading outside and up the stairs to Jim's apartment.

The door wasn't locked, so he just let himself in. Jim's apartment looked pretty clean, filled with navy and beige and white, which he hadn't been expecting. He wasn't sure what he'd been expecting.

He certainly hadn't been expecting the room to be filled to the brim with daisies.

There were vases of them on every surface: three or four on the little kitchen table, two on the kitchen counter, one on both windowsills breaking up the left wall, two on the small coffee table just next to the sofa, and then there were several on the floor, lining the walls as if waiting their turn for a spot on a tabletop. The room smelled beautiful, if a little overpowering.

"Hello?" Jim croaked from the sofa.

Leonard pursed his lips at how weak he sounded. "Jim, it's me." He called.

"Bones!" Jim sang. He sat up, his head and shoulders appearing over the back of the couch. He swayed a little before he turned to grin at him. "Hey Bones. Long time no see."

"Yeah." Leonard nodded. He moved around the side of the sofa, and Jim sat up, pulling blankets with him as he did. He sniffled, and Leonard pursed his lips again. "Jan told me you weren't well."

"Just an allergic reaction." Jim shrugged. "Get 'em all the time, it'll pass."

"You shouldn't be alone." He said. "Just in case."

"And who's gonna stay with me?" Jim raised an eyebrow. "I grew out of imaginary friends a long time ago, Bones. Everyone's working."

"I'm not." Leonard stated, sounding and feeling a little dumb.

Jim gave a small smile. "Is this you volunteering?"

Leonard paused, before he sighed and sat down next to him. "Yeah I guess so."

Jim just gave a short nod before turning back to the television, to what Leonard thought looked like the Wiggles.

"What's with all the daisies?" He asked, after a while.

"Got the batch in for the Mitchell wedding this morning-"

"I thought Sulu grew the flowers?" Leo raised an eyebrow.

Jim gave a rueful smile. "He was having a little trouble with the daisies." He sniffled. "And we needed them pretty urgently, so we ordered in. There was extra, and Gaila was gonna leave them down in the store room, but-" He shrugged.

"Are they your favourite?" Leo asked, assuming it to be th explanation for why Gaila had bequeathed them to Jim.

"Oh hell no," Jim shook his head. "I think they're a little overused, and definitely overstated, but they're the closest thing we have to Get Well Soon flowers."

Leonard raised an eyebrow. "Get Well Soon flowers?"

"Sure." Jim shrugged. "Every flower has a meaning, Bones. Every single one."

Leonard was about to question it further when his eyes caught the television set again. "Is that the Wiggles?"

~*~

Leonard spent the whole day in Jim's apartment, and eventually passed out beside him in a heap of blankets and cookie crumbs. He slept in, and when he woke up he found Jim clinging to his front like a baby monkey. He definitely looked a lot better, and his fever had gone down, but Leonard had a surgery booked in for ten o'clock so if he wanted to go it would have to be now. He gently unfurled Jim's appendages and clambered out of the blanket, being sure to tuck him right back in. He wrote a note on a post-it before he left, and stuck it to Jim's forehead. It simply read:

_"Dear Jim,_

_Had to go to work. There's a guy who needs a spleen removed who just couldn't wait. You're looking a lot better, but as a doctor I think you should take today off too._

_- ~~Bones~~ Leonard"_

And then he left, stumbling back to his apartment so that he could grab his wallet and his cell before he went for work.

The hospital quickly consumed him; he was having back-to-back surgery almost every day, and when he wasn't in theatre he was consulting. His life was reclaimed, and as much as Leonard wanted to see Jim again to make sure he was alright, he found that he just didn't have time.

The posies, however, still brightened his doorstep of a morning, although they'd changed since the last time he'd been receiving them. Where before he had been receiving the dainty white posy, the flowers now arrived as a small bouquet and consisted of bright yellow roses, vibrant purple aster and campanula. It was a stark contrast to the carnations and the Begonia, but Leonard decided he liked it.

It was another two weeks before he could dip into the coffee shop, and even then it was only to grab a cup on his way out to work. Sulu took his order, and when Leonard asked for a black coffee with a raise of his eyebrows, he smirked. He grabbed a yellow cup from the stack of them by the coffee machine as he started making the order. Jim gave a shriek as he emerged from the kitchen, flour along his cheekbones and an apron slung over his hips.

"Sulu, Bones gets a blue cup." He said, as if it were common knowledge. "Put that away."

Leonard raised an eyebrow. "What does it matter which colour I-"

He was interrupted by Jim gasping, dropping the tray of Rose and Cinnamon Scones as he stared at his thumb which was now bright red and looking as if it may blister. Sulu rolled his eyes as he poured Leonard's order into a blue cup. Leonard came round the side of the counter and hopped over, like something out of an action movie, and took Jim's burned thumb gently in his hand.

"Christ kid, can you go five minutes without a medical emergency?" He scowled, as he inspected the damage.

Jim watched him with wide eyes; Leonard tried to ignore it. "Go run it under a cold tap for a minute. You got a first aid kit?"

"Under the sink in the kitchen." Sulu answered.

Leonard dragged Jim through by his wrist; Jim went willingly. Whilst he held his thumb under the tap, Leonard located the first aid kit and pulled it out, producing a tiny bottle of burn lotion and a bandage. He would complain about how understocked this first aid kit was, if he wasn't aware of how late for work he was going to be because of this.

But Jim needed him. So he didn't mind too much.

Turning back to the sink, he shut the water off and gently spread the cream of Jim's thumb, which was thankfully not beginning to blister. He wrapped it loosely in bandage, leaving it room to breath. Jim winced at the pain, but he didn't say anything.

"Jim, I gotta go to work." Leonard said, catching Jim's gaze and holding it. "I'll come back and check on this tomorrow, alright? Just leave it alone and it should be fine."

"Okay." Jim nodded.

"And try to stay out of trouble while I'm gone." Leonard added as he made his way out of the kitchen. Jim followed him like a little lost puppy, and Sulu handed him his coffee.

As he was leaving, Jim grinned, "Bones, why does your coffee smell like hibiscus?"

Leonard narrowed his eyes. "Goodbye, Jim."

~*~

He had meant to go down to the coffee shop before work the next day, but when he was called into work in the middle of the night for an emergency C-section that needed the most skilled hands in the whole of San Francisco, he returned to his apartment feeling totally drained and with orders to take the next day off. The procedure had taken a lot longer than it should have, and he was so tired that he slept right through until two o'clock in the afternoon. He was still tired when he got up, padding around his apartment and making himself a cup of coffee, which was horribley bland without that god damn flower syrup in it. He went to get his mail, opening the doorway and forgetting about his usual posey.

This was not his usual posy.

This was a bouquet, and a large on at that. Made up of several types of leafy greens, sweet pea, gardenia, crocus and lilac, he was surprised he hadn't smelled it even before he opened the door. It was beatiful, and once again, the tag read: ' _From Jim_ '. He considered it thanks for treating his wound the day before, and so took it back inside to place it in a vase on his kitchen table.

He didn't give it anymore thought than that.

~*~

He didn't get to go down to the coffee shop that day; he fell asleep, and then when he returned to the hospital the next day he found that for the next few weeks, he'd be pulling the graveyard shift. He was out all night and slept all day; he dipped into the coffee shop for a coffee one morning, but he was too tired to stand and talk to Jim. He wanted to, especially at the bright, radiant smile the kid gave him, and the way his whole face lit up when he saw him. But he was so tired, so very tired, and so he took his flowery coffee and trudged upstairs.

He saw Jim a few times- the one time he managed to call into the coffee shop, a few times he caught Jim setting out the tables for the start of the day, and once he went to see him to give him his rent. But other than that, Leonard didn't see the kid for three weeks.

He hadn't noticed that the flowers had stopped until he got a bouquet the size of his head.

It was a cluster of yellow and white flowers that he was too tired to recognise, framed by waxy green leaves. In the middle of the cluster of flowers, standing alone, was a single red rose.

Leonard put them in the vase on his kitchen table, and went to sleep.

~*~

He dreamed of Jim.

He dreamed of holding him in his arms, lying him against his chest and holding him close, whispering sweet nothings into his hair. He dreamed of running skilled fingers over his skin, tracing the shape of those plump lips, following the line of his nose, the arch of his eyebrows, running fingertips along his scalp. He saw those electric blue eyes, and he heard him whisper, "Every flower has a meaning, Bones. Every single one."

He woke imagining his lips against Jim's, and only after the initial wave of loneliness and hurt had subsided could he tiptoe to the kitchen for the bottle of bourbon.

He reached into the kitchen cupboard, pulling out the bottle and not bothering with a glass. He had only just raised it to his lips, already tasting the rich burn of the rusty liquid when his eyes fell on the flowers.

_"Every flower has a meaning, Bones."_

Oh.

He pulled his laptop open, bourbon forgotten as he looked at each flower, googling them until he knew the answer.

The flowers, he found, where a bunch of yellow and white tulips, narcissus, jonquil, margiold, anemone, and that single red rose.

The tulips symbolised hopeless and one sided love respectfully, and that was enough to makes his stomach twist. The Narcissus again meant unrequited love, and he winced when he found that Jonquil symbolised "Return my affection". Marigold meant pain and grief, whilst Anemone meant anticipation and unfading love. And that rose, that red, red rose, symbolised true love.

How could so much desperation be shown through something as simple as flowers?

It was three o'clock when he'd finally finished his research, and had spent a while with his head in his hands, thinking. If his dream, and if the feeling of loneliness in the pit of his stomach had anyhing to do with this, he could assume that he loved Jim back. But how to tell him? Jim had so subtly told him, _had_ been telling him for weeks now, that he loved him, but Leonard had no way to show him he cared.

He plucked that red rose from the middle of the bouquet and got dressed into something a little more presentable before he flew downstairs, into the coffee shop as if it were life or death.

Which it certainly felt like.

He looked around, eyes wide and breathing quick, but he couldn't find Jim. Pavel stood behind the counter, and Leonard rushed toward him. "Where's Jim?" He demanded.

"He's watering the flowers." Chekov said, brow furrowing a little. "Are you alright Mr. McCoy-?"

"'m fine!" He called over his shoulder as he pushed into the flower shop and barged into the back room.

Jim was stood over a tiny snowdrop, watering them with a small yellow watering can, with daisies painted all along the bottom. He wore a flower crown of red carnations on his head, and Leonard stood in the doorway.

"Jim." He said, softly.

Jim turned, eyes widening when he saw Leonard in the doorway. Leonard raised his arm, holding the rose out to Jim.

The watering can fell from Jim's hand. Neither of them seemed to notice.

"Bones?"

"It's for you, Jim." He murmured.

Jim shook his head a little. "I don't think you understand the-"

"I understand perfectly." He replied softly, crossing the distance between them quickly. "I'm just sorry I didn't understand sooner."

He pressed his lips to Jim's in a soft, careful kiss, raising one hand to lean gently against his neck to keep him in place. The other hand pressed the rose against Jim's palm, and their fingers interlaced around it, holding them together between the two.

"I love you." Jim mumbled against his lips, pulling away slightly to look up into Leonard's eyes.

Leonard caught his gae, and held it for a long time. "I love you too." He murmured, before crashing his lips to Jim's.


End file.
